BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- High-tech companies that seek venture capital and have been launched by Indiana University students, faculty, staff or alumni could benefit from a newly announced partnership between IU Ventures and Pennsylvania-based Osage University Partners, or OUP.

OUP invests in startups that develop technologies in partnership with top research institutions. IU Ventures joins OUP's more than 100 academic institution partners as one of its associate partners, which include Princeton University, University of Chicago and The Rockefeller University, and core partners such as Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Notre Dame is currently the only other Indiana institution associated with OUP.

Teri Willey, manager of the IU Philanthropic Venture Fund and executive director of IU Ventures, said the partnership strengthens IU Ventures in several ways.

"Osage University Partners' focus is investing in companies founded by scientists, academics and students. Being an associate partner of OUP provides further resources to facilitate the success of our portfolio companies with OUP as a potential co-investor. This will help address the risk that a company won't raise enough money to carry out its objectives or find the right type of funding," Willey said. "Working with OUP also provides an opportunity to introduce another professional venture fund to the increasingly attractive investment landscape in Indiana."

Kirsten Leute, senior vice president of university relations at OUP, said having a formal relationship with IU Ventures offers unique advantages.

"Our partnership with IU Ventures marks OUP's first direct relationship with a university venture fund," Leute said. "We are pleased to add another institutional partnership in Indiana as the state cultivates an innovation hub for the Midwest."

Willey said IU Ventures will introduce OUP to several investment opportunities in Indiana, including its 14-company portfolio and growing pipeline. She said several portfolio companies are achieving new milestones; Doxly, a legal documents technology startup, was acquired by Litera Microsystems in August.